A rematch with Navy in the inaugural EagleBank Bowl may offer Wake Forest a rare shot at immediate revenge for a September loss to the Midshipmen, but that isn't what has coach Jim Grobe fired up about the postseason.

Obviously, first-year coach Ken Niumatalolo wanted to win his first bowl game. Every coach wants to win every game. And there's a different sting considering his team jumped to a two-score lead and then fell to Wake Forest in the first EagleBank Bowl on Dec. 20. It's an emotion most coaches haven't felt.

Riley Skinner found a perfect way to obliterate the miserable memory of his painful performance against Navy earlier this season. Skinner went 11-for-11 and threw the go-ahead touchdown pass to Ben Wooster with 7:52 left, leading Wake Forest to a 29-19 comeback victory over the Midshipmen in the inaugural EagleBank Bowl to open the bowl season Saturday.

Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo has tunnel vision this time of year, oblivious to what's happening in the outside world. He didn't even realize the economy was in such turmoil until recently catching a glimpse of the news on television.

Over the last six years, the Navy football program has gone from an ironclad frigate to a nuclear-powered carrier.A stretch? Perhaps. But there's no disputing that the Paul Johnson era in Annapolis, Md., was an unqualified success. With Johnson now preparing for his first season at Georgia Tech, it's up to longtime assistant Ken Niumatalolo to keep Navy on course.

The Utah Utes are taking this bowl business seriously. Brian Johnson threw for one touchdown and ran for another, and Utah opened the bowl season with a wild 35-32 victory over the Navy Midshipmen in the Poinsettia Bowl on Thursday night.

The military service academy's players were smaller and slower, nary a blue-chipper among them in a roiling sea of anointed gold helmets and grand tradition. On paper, Notre Dame even the can't-get-out-of-their-own-way 2007 version should beat Navy every year from now until they stop building billion-dollar warships. On real grass, it sometimes doesn't happen that way.